"As Mr. Pond knows, the last lesson of the wise man is that the fool is sometimes right."

Steve Miller in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 9 #6

"It’s kind of like an elephant in a bathtub: If you don’t see it at first glance, chances are you never will."

Sen. Fred Thompson quoted by Jay Nordlinger in National Review May 17, 1999 [as it happens I don't agree with the point Thompson was making but it's a great metaphor] 

"If Your Life Was a Business, Would You Invest in It?"

The title of a book by John Eckblad and David Kiel, mentioned by Susan Riley in Ottawa Citizen Dec. 15, 2004

In my latest National Post column I urge politicians to imagine a list of really bad headlines about themselves and then be careful never to do anything that would cause one of those headlines to appear if it got found out.

"History is boring only if people are boring. History isn’t relevant only if, living your own life, you don’t care how other people lived theirs."

William Watson in Ottawa Citizen July 11, 1998

"The two most important questions in any economic analysis are: (1) What is the alternative? and (2) What happens then, and then, and then?"

Robert Higgs “Allocation of Risks Associated with Medical Goods: Government Regulation versus Market Process”

In my latest National Post column I argue that there's no progress on the East Coast aboriginal fishery, and the rule of law is breaking down, because too many politicians and judges genuinely believe they can give stuff away to some people while keeping it for others.

"I would not want to make you unhappy by detailing pain, but there is a crucial sort of difference between pain and the narration of pain. I am telling you what happened. If there is vicarious pain in knowing, there is actual peril in not knowing. In aversion lies a colossal risk."

Philip K. Dick, The Transmigration of Timothy Archer